Isabella Langner

Center Editor

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Following the 2020 film Greenland, Lionsgate recently released its sequel, Greenland 2: Migration, on Jan. 9. The first film depicts the Garrity family fighting to survive as an asteroid heads towards Earth. In a matter of days, they make their way to a Greenland bunker, struggling to survive asteroid fragments hitting the earth, other desperate people, and a lack of accessible transportation to Greenland. Greenland 2: Migration is a continuation of the exciting action and emotion that characterizes the first movie.

This installment takes place five years following the end of the first movie. The movie’s first scene features John, the protagonist, narrating how Earth’s atmosphere and climate became almost uninhabitable after the asteroid hit in the first film. Once the audience is caught up, the cameras pan to John adventuring outside of the bunker. Volcanic eruptions, constant earthquakes, and toxic air have restricted their lives to anxiety-ridden days inside the bunker. 

In addition to these stressful natural disasters and life-threatening situations in the first twenty minutes, the movie also includes emotional moments between the family members. The film highlights the desperation for the outdoors that Nathan, John and Allison’s son, feels while he grows up in the sterile cement bunker. Throughout the film, John’s health declines due to his time spent outside in the toxic air, observing the state of the outside world for the bunker’s leaders. One of my favorite aspects from the film was its ability to balance emotional moments and action sequences. These plot points also caused stakes and realistic threats to the characters wellbeing that would occur if the movie’s plot had happened in the real world.

At around the halfway point after the earthquake, the movie becomes slightly repetitive and predictable. Every few minutes, asteroid debris strikes the earth, giant lightning storms materialize, or the ground begins shaking at moments that seem too perfectly timed. While this keeps the film entertaining and fast-paced, each natural disaster begins to lose its weight; the disasters follow a pattern, and the main characters survive each time. One thing that kept the movie from being completely predictable was that every character besides the Garrity family did not retain their plot armor for the entirety of the film. Deaths were sudden and often, keeping Greenland 2: Migration realistic.

After immense suffering throughout the film, the movie finishes with a happy ending which was satisfying as a viewer; the Garrity family reaches the crater, and it does, in fact, support life. However, John passed away due to constant exposure to the toxic air. This scene made the movie much more realistic and gave it the emotional finale necessary to round out an action-filled thriller.